HIS HD6870 IceQ 1GB Final Thoughts

In the benchmark tests the HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB was compared along side the faster HIS HD6870 IceQ X Turbo X reviewed earlier this year by us, which currently sells at the same price. In our review of the X Turbo X variant we noted that there were some issues with the GPU crashing due to a very relaxed fan profile. I am glad to say that these issues are not present with the HD6870 IceQ 1GB and the fan spins at the most optimal level possible, even under overclocking conditions.

The PCB design of the two HIS HD6870's are identical with a few minor variances in IC's, as such the overclocks are the extremely close between the two. There is 20MHz between core speeds and 10MHz between memory speeds, this means that for those who aren't afraid to venture then the choice only comes down to looks as both perform the same as each other when overclocked.

HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB Conclusion

Important: In this section I am going to write a brief five point summary on the following categories; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. These views are my own and help me to give the HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB a rating out of 10. A high or low score does not necessarily mean that it is better or worse than a similar video card that has been reviewed by another writer here at Benchmark Reviews, which may have received a higher or lower score. It is however a good indicator of whether the HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB is good or not. I would strongly urge you to read the entire review, if you have not already, so that you can make an educated decision for yourself.

The graphics performance of the HIS Radeon HD6870 1GB is good but it's real potential is only realised when you overclock it. In some of our tests it was able to match or come very close to the performance of the stock GTX 560Ti and then more so when it was overclocked. This card comes with reference card clock speeds but pushing it further requires little effort and the gains are plenty. Overclocking is always uncertain territory so we should be thankful that there is any headroom at all.

The HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB looks like something from the past. As soon as I saw it I remembered my old ATI X1950 XTX. Thankfully though, it's not all for looks this time round (the X1950 XTX was a proper cooker) and the IceQ cooler works really well. I have long since thrown my UV lights in the trash so I couldn't tell you if this modern day shroud is UV reactive like the ones of yesteryear but being white will have an effect in itself anyway (if UV is your thing).

Construction is excellent as you would expect from a company with a good reputation like HIS, despite the use of plastic for the shroud the whole package feels quite solid. Taking the card to pieces and reconstructing it was a breeze and everything lined up perfectly, the IceQ heatsink is solid and really adds some weight and girth to the card which reassures you that it is no fragile piece of hardware.

Functionality-wise the HIS HD6870 IceQ 1GB acts as you would expect. The fan speed follows temperature changes promptly and delivers good and quiet cooling performance. The other great thing is that this model clocks up nicely too; +100MHz GPU core and +200MHz Memory is a very good overclock and the HIS HD6870 IceQ 1GB produced an excellent 14% average increase in benchmark scores becausee of this.

The HIS Radeon HD6870 IceQ 1GB video card model H687Q1G2M will cost you $199.99 at NewEgg and Amazon retailers. At this price point it sits directly between the good old NVIDIA GTX460 and the GTX 560Ti and falls between them performance-wise too. On average the HIS HD6870 IceQ X Turbo X costs $5.69/FPS in our benchmark tests, and I believe this to be a reasonable price to pay for a performance card like this.

I have no problems recommending this card to anyone who is in the market for a mid/high end card. For those that are worried about overclocking there is always the factory overclocked HIS HD6870 IceQ X Turbo X available at the same price.

Pros:

+ IceQ cooler is very good
+ Fan at 100% is not too loud
+ Excellent build quality
+ Exhausts out the PCI bracket not inside the case
+ Good value for money
+ CrossFireX Support
+ Clocks to 1GHz with ease
+ Variety of outputs: Display Port, DVI-I and HDMI

Cons:

- Very long for a HD6870 (287mm)
- Old school looking video card
- Bare copper heatpipes look out of place
- No factory overclock

Comments

Great review of the card. Honestly, the name already gives away on how much it could be overclocked, you could use an air conditioner to push the card further. On your first point, saying the PC gaming is dead is like saying that every scientist in the world is dead. We're the pioneers of interactive graphics.

"A lot of people are speculating that the PC and PC gaming industry is dying but I beg to differ. I think the Tablet/Smartphone era is just a novelty phase. One problem lies with power delivery, and we all know that today's batteries just don't cut it when we want to use our devices for extended periods..."

Nowhere did he say that he himself agreed and actually said he disagreeed.

Thanks Steven. Yeah I want to build a new pc but don't have the cash at the moment so I was looking into a new graphics card for now.I was thinking about this HIS ice 6870 or this:##newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102924Which would you prefer? Or what other card would you consider?Thanks

Great review from BMR as usual, keep'em coming! Despite what most people say, this is good time for upgrading GPUs. The price has reached a level of tranquility and is quite reasonable than ever and we've a pretty good idea of the performance that we can expect from both camps. Surely one can wait for GCN (SI/Kepler) but that ain't happening before 2012 as we all now know. But what we have in the market is proven GPUs with custom designs like this one and MSI TwinFrozr II/III, which are great for OCing and bang for $$. These AIBs are doing a great job of making innovative and effective designs and they should not be afraid of dishing out some significant amount of factory OC. Also considering the number of big tittles that are to be released like BF3, MW3 and Skyrim- we shall see a surge in the sells of discrete GPUs!

That is an awesome overclock for not bumping the voltage. I'd love to see if you have control over this and see if you can get an even higher overclock. You can use ATI Tray Tools to get past the 1Ghz limit and you can punch in your own voltage. I have a pair of Vision#s and they will not allow you over mess with the voltage at all. Not even at the Bios level.

I bumped the voltage to 1.3V to get that overclock and I was able to get past the 1GHz barrier by using the unofficial overclocking method whereby you modify the MSIafterburner.cfg to give more headroom. For all my efforts I couldn't get it stable beyond 1GHz. This was written in black and white in the overclocking chapter of this article.

"More overclocking headroom could be unlocked for the GPU Core and Memory speeds using the unofficial overclocking method in MSI Afterburner, but I wasn't able to keep this card stable during testing when I went past the previous limits. I bumped the vCore to the max 1.30V and was able to push the clock speeds to 1000MHz GPU and 1250MHz (5GHz effective) Memory and still remain stable during the benchmarking run."